No excuses!
- Fri, January 11 2008
- Filed under: Marketing essentials
I recently gave a presentation and was floored by the response. And not in a good way. I heard the following after I talked about ways to tweak a message to make it work far better - just by focusing on the audience perspective and speaking to audience priorities. Here’s the reason why this is “not possible”:
1. I don’t have the budget to do that.
2. I don’t have the staff to do that.
3. I don’t have the time to do that.
4. I don’t have the internal support to do that.
5. I don’t have the expertise to do that.
6. The dog ate my homework.
Okay I didn’t hear #6 but I did hear the rest.
It all reminded me of the same kind of excuses that keep us out of shape:
If you hear yourself saying any of the above, stop yourself and think differently.
Think like this:
1. My budget is so small I’d better invest the time to have the right message so I get bang for my buck.
2. My staff is so small I need to focus them on working smarter.
3. My time is better spent fixing a bad message than sending out more bad messages.
4. I need to market internally what I want to do by showing how it helps my colleagues meet their goals—that time spent will mean far less time overall on internal politicking, resistance and drama.
5. I do have the expertise to do a better job - there are great blogs and resources (like my organization’s free http://www.fundraising123.org learning center) to help me.
DO NOT THINK IN TERMS OF CONSTRAINTS. Think in terms of possibility. It’s not about what you can’t do. It’s about what you must do. Just do it!
Comments
Exactly! What a great point and clearly this is the time of the year when cutting out excuses and old ways of thinking are getting a lot of air. (Also see Holly’s post about an email this morning from a nonprofit where excuses have ruled: http://snurl.com/1x6s9 )
There are always two ways to say anything - that’s always my response. If I hear an excuse, I ask what the other way is to get at the problem. Thanks for the great points!
There are a lot of great organizations out there that want to help out. I’m always willing to lend a hand or give some ideas to a nonprofit professional. www.ASmallChange.net
Thank you, Katya. This is perfect! Having dedicated my work to helping organizations eliminate the “If Only’s” from their own work, my New Years Resolution was to recognize them in myself (now there’s a task!). We all do it, it’s just easier to see in everyone else!
So thanks. What a great start to the New Year! (And thanks to Michelle Martin at Bamboo Project Blog for blogging about this post, or I wouldn’t have seen it!)
Hildy
LOL at “the dog ate my homework”. You gotta love the guy in the wheelchair, a true inspiration.